"It’s not hard to see that whatever happens now – document or no document, final vote or no vote – “outreach” to gays and Communion for the divorced and remarried are now inserted into the discussion at the highest levels of the Church. And unless there’s some strong action from Pope Francis, they’re going to stay there. There’s been some shrewd manipulation of the parliamentary procedures all along to get us to this point. Even if there is a course correction in the coming months, the Church is now going to be dealing with these divisive confusions for the foreseeable future."

And though I know my conservative blinders are at least an inch thick, I can't help but feel like we were not talking about these issues all the time much at all before a talking point was made of trying not to talk about them so much.

Clearly, the Bishop of Rome lost this Synodal battle but it remains to be seen if he loses the Synodal war for in his identifying himself as Pope ( a rarity) he was reminding every Catholic - especially Cardinals and Bishop who oppose him and his agenda - who has ultimate authority on Earth.

The Bishop of Rome is not going to take his public humiliation humbly; as one close to him has said previously, he knows power and how to use it.

Kudos to the Cardinals and Bishops who stood with Christ against His Vicar but this is just one battle.

The war ain;t over unit the Bishop of Rome losses or wins the war within the Synod and if the final report is contrary to his obvious agenda, we will soon have another Papal abdication.